These 15 little-known perks show why Amazon Prime is so much more than free shipping

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Jeramey Lende / Shutterstock.com Chances are that if you've made a few purchases through Amazon, you know the basic perks of becoming an Amazon Prime member: For $99 a year or $10.99 a month, you get free shipping, early access to lightning deals, and other exclusive discounts.

Prime members also have access to many lesser-known perks, and when all are considered together, that $99 price tag turns out to be a truly excellent value.

Below, we take you through all the access that comes with a Prime membership — so you can see for yourself.

1. Free same-day shipping

Amazon

One of the best-known perks of being a Prime member is you get free two-day shipping on all purchases. What you may not know is that in some cities, you'll have access to free same-day delivery.

Prime members in over 5,000 US cities and towns can get delivery as fast as today on over a million items with qualifying orders over $35. Check your zip code here to see which options are available to you.

And if you're not lucky enough to live in one of those cities, two-day delivery is still pretty good.

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2. Prime Now

Amazon

If same-day delivery isn't fast enough for you, there's Prime Now.

Prime Now has over 25,000 items across 25 categories, including things like household items, groceries, electronics, gifts, seasonal items, and more. Plus, get restaurant and local store delivery in select cities.

If you need cleaning supplies, a Bell pepper for your recipe, or you forgot to get a gift for your niece's birthday, you can have one delivered within two hours without leaving the house or adding any cost to the super cheap Amazon price. If you're traveling and forgot a toothbrush and shaving cream, the same rule applies. If you really, really need something, you can pay $7.99 in select cities for a one-hour delivery.

The new service isn't available everywhere that all the normal features of Amazon are — it's currently available in 32 US metro areas — so you'll likely want to check to see if it's made its way to your city yet before beginning for everyday use, but it's still a great tool to keep in mind when traveling.

3. Prime Video

Amazon

Prime Video is one of the fastest-growing aspects of Amazon Prime. The streaming service is making a play to compete with the likes of Netflix and Hulu, and is doing a good job at it judging by the past few awards seasons. With Emmy-winning original series "Transparent" and Academy-Award winning "Manchester by the Sea" on its roster, in addition to a large library of shows and movies, Prime Video is quickly becoming a must-have for anyone who has cut their cable cord.

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4. Showtime and Starz at a discount

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In addition to access to Prime Video, being a Prime member gives you the opportunity to subscribe to premium channels at a discount, including Starz, Showtime, and Cinemax. With more and more networks switching to the "a la carte" method of subscription, it's likely that an even wider array of channels will soon be available.

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5, 6. Prime Music and Amazon Music Unlimited

Amazon

For anyone not yet committed to Spotify, Apple Music, or Tidal, or simply tired of paying that monthly subscription cost, a Prime membership includes two music-related perks.

Amazon Music Unlimited has all of the features you'd expect from a major music streaming service: a large library, the ability to download songs for offline listening, and playlist building and sharing tools. Through the services typically costs $9.99 a month, it's $7.99 for Prime members.

11. Big discounts on the latest video games

Amazon

Another great additional deal for Prime members is a 20% discount on all new video games for the first two weeks of their release, as well as any preorders you might make. If you're an avid gamer, you might make back the $99 Prime subscription with discounts here alone.

15. Unlimited photo storage

If you like to take as many photos as your digital camera can allow and are a bit of a photography hoarder (don't worry, you're not alone), Prime will give you access to Amazon cloud storage, where you'll be able to upload photos from your phone or computer and be able to access them whenever you want.

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